Adaptation of Interactive Lecture

Per our class wide discussion on lectures and note taking last week, I tried out the interactive lecture technique today in class. The topic was India, and I used a slightly adapted version of the technique recommended. I had a blank time line on the board when students arrived in class, and had them copy it down along with the title "Indian Independence Time line." After the majority of students were done copying, I asked them to open their textbooks to the section on Indian Independence. I then had them "preview" the chapter, as discussed in our reading class a few weeks ago, to find the dates I had listed on the board. I then gave fun size candies to students who correctly identified the date. We all filled in the time line as we went along. I used this technique to do a couple of things. First, I used it as a focusing activity. Second, I used it to build intrigue and curiosity about the content. Third, I used it to familiarize the students with the spellings of several odd terms that would be used during the interactive lecture.

I then had students turn over their time lines to take notes alongside my lecture in an interactive way. I talked, and they listened. To keep them on track, I kept the time line on the board as a reference. I covered about half of the time line events, in about 10 minutes, and then had the students write some. They then shared with a partner. I repeated the process one other time.

I feel that students did learn how to take notes more productively from this exercise. But I was disappointed by their continual lack of interest. Some seemed a bit more pulled in then during PowerPoints or copying notes, but they weren't as engaged as I would have liked. I also worried that some students, especially in one of my classes with some low-achieving students, weren't getting everything down. However, I think the fact that they were forced to be responsible for their own learning and note taking counteracted that.

I plan on using this strategy again. I liked pairing it with the time line since I think that gave me some assurance that at least the basics were in the students' notes. I'm not sure this is the perfect lecture method yet, but it is a good trick to have in the bag. I plan to improve on this technique by using this form of lecture on a more interesting topic, and see how that goes. I will then be able to accurately reflect on whether the method would be more successful with other content.